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Ugandan Endeavor: Day 5 – Making Progress

Of course, breakfast again is bread with butter and bananas. But, I got a ride into MBale early in the morning. I sent another email to Patrick proposing an offer to hire him as a director of the business. After more discussions with Jane, I can see that she really wants to have the business in MBale, although I had been thinking that there was too much competition here. However, as I was in the internet cafes today, I took note of the fact that this café was packed – the best one in town. But also, I was only getting 1-2KB/s download speed. There are several cafes in the area, but the others have even slower computers and the same download speed. So, I was thinking that we could take the MBale market by offering higher speed to the customers. We’d charge them more, eventually to cover the higher interne costs we’d be paying. But, we would have the fastest computers in town. So, another advantage.
I interviewed this one guy who wants to come work for the new café today – he currently works at the best café in town. There are others here related to the orphanage that want to work as well. I’m hesitant about these people, but if they are hard working and trustworthy, then that’s all that really matters. Those two characteristics are hard to come by. I think, I’ll test them by asking them to volunteer with setting up the rooms in the café.
I visited the internet providers in town and check them out. They said that most people in town get this particular package and when I told them I wanted more, they had to look around for their better packages. So, that’s encouraging. There really aren’t other options available by any other providers that are even in the price range. Of course, I’d be worried that these other people will upgrade to the connection speed we’d provide, but that will at least force the smaller places out of business.
Today was a very productive, relative to the other days here. Patrick has tentatively agreed to travel here and spend time starting the internet café. That is the most amazing thing possible. With his strong management guidance, I believe the café could sustain itself.
I’m exited that tomorrow I should be in town by 9am to meet with the internet provider. We may begin to rent tomorrow and get a carpenter in to build the desks. That would be truly amazing. I’m so excited that things are looking up. However, nothing has actually happened yet. Soon enough.
It’s really cool here to see how much these people see God as a part of their lives. Everybody gives God credit for any blessing in their life. They consistently ask others to pray with them over almost all issues that arise. They truly rely on God. I’ve been thinking that having so much security (money, things, jobs, etc) in the US gets in the way of us relying on God and giving him credit for the things in our lives. It’s also great to hear the importance of family and relationships here – whereas in the US, these things are secondary to career/money. These people cannot imagine working late instead of going home for a family dinner. They just wouldn’t do it. It’s great.